“I don’t know.” Now Chance was musing. “I think a woman who knows criminals as well as you do, I think a woman like you might be able to predict that the ADA would move Daniel to the station—and that would put him within reach of Griffin, right?”
She whirled to face Chance. “You have a great imagination.”
He shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
Lex growled. He was pissed at Chance but something was nagging at him. Something about the shooting at the station.
“For the hit to go down, there couldn’t be witnesses, though. So maybe that was where you came in. Your job was to get the ADA out of that room. You distracted the ADA, and Griffin made the hit.” Chance slapped his hands together. “And just like that, a threat is eliminated from your life and from Ethan’s.”
“A great imagination,” Sophie said again. “But that’s all it is…imagination.”
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in, Dev,” Chance called.
Lex looked over and saw Dev head into the office. Dev’s face was far too grim. This isn’t going to be good. Nothing about the trip to VJS had been good so far.
“You accessed Griffin’s bank records?” Chance asked.
Oh, hell.
Dev nodded. “Twenty grand was deposited into Griffin’s account two days ago.”
“What?” The surprise in Sophie’s voice seemed real.
“Two days. That sure is real close to the time of that little visit you got from your stalker,” Chance pointed out.
Sophie marched toward Dev. “That twenty grand you found…where did it come from?”
“I’m still tracking it. Right now, I just know there was a payoff.”
She swallowed. Lex saw the delicate movement of her throat. Her gaze came to him, then darted to Chance, and finally back to Dev. “So that’s it. You all think I’ve been tricking you? Using VJS as what—some kind of cover? That the plan all along was to move Daniel out into a more accessible spot to off him?” She smiled. It was grim. Cold. “A good plan. But not my plan.”
“Was it Ethan’s?” Chance asked.
She sighed. “You are so hung up on him being the bad guy. Why? Because he had sex with your precious Gwen? Don’t get me wrong, I like Gwen, but jealousy can make a man go blind. In this case, you’re blind. Ethan didn’t do this. I didn’t do this.” She flashed her gaze at Lex. “I thought you knew me better than that.”
He did. “I don’t think you were involved,” Lex replied. Screw his friends, he knew her. Inside and out. “I saw your face at that station. You didn’t know what was going down.”
One of her delicate shoulders lifted in a move that was probably supposed to look careless. “Maybe I’m just a really good actress.”
“Not that good.”
Her chin notched.
Dev cleared his throat. “I will trace that money. I’ll find out who was behind that hit.”
“If it was even a hit,” Sophie noted. “Maybe Griffin inherited money from a dead uncle. Maybe he sold furniture or a car. I’d call this circumstantial evidence, nothing more.” Her voice dismissed them all. “Now, I have clients waiting at my office. This little stop was fun, but I’m done.” She stared directly at Lex. “Done here. Thanks for your services, but they are no longer needed.”
What?
She marched for the door, her heels sinking into the carpet.
He shook his head, pretty sure that she hadn’t just told him he was fired.
But she was opening the door. Leaving him. “Sophie, dammit, wait!” He lunged forward.
Dev caught his arm. “Man, there is still more you don’t know. More you probably don’t want to know about her. She isn’t what you think. Not at all. Save yourself some serious trouble and let her go.”
Maybe he liked trouble, because Lex shoved Dev out of his way and gave chase. So what if he looked desperate? She couldn’t get away from him, not like this.
He caught her at the elevator. His fingers curled around her shoulder, and he swung her back to face him. “Sophie, no.”
Her face was a perfect blank—no emotion at all. No fury. No pain. And he knew she had to be hurting. Hurting because if she hadn’t been involved in the hit on Duvato—and, yeah, it sure sounded like a hit now—then she’d been used as bait for the killing. Maybe she’d been used by the one man she considered family.
“Get your hand off me,” Sophie ordered. “I told you, we’re done.”
No, they weren’t even close to being done.
He lifted her up against him and she gave a little yell. “What are you doing?” Sophie demanded. “Stop it! Put me down! Now!”Ah, that last word held plenty of emotion. Fire. Fury.
The receptionist came running. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at them in shock. Dev and Chance were right on her heels.
Sophie squirmed against him. He just tightened his hold.
“Uh, Lex…” Dev began. “I don’t think you should—”
“Fuck off. You’ve done enough damage.”
Sophie frowned down at him. She wasn’t struggling in his arms. She was so warm and perfect. So Sophie. “Lex?” Her voice was softer now.
He carried her into his office and kicked the door shut. Then he let her slowly slide down his body. One sensual inch at a time.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Then she sucked in a sharp breath. “No, you don’t get to manhandle me and carry me in here like some kind of—”
“I’m sorry,” he told her softly. “I just wanted you to stay.”
“Too bad.” She jerked away from him. “I don’t need your services any longer. But then, according to your buddies, I never did. I’m some scheming criminal mastermind who was just using you as a cover for my big plan of killing Daniel.”
“You’d probably make an awesome criminal mastermind.” He fully believed that.
Her brow furrowed. “Did you just insult me or compliment me?”
Lex paced to his desk. He opened the top drawer and pulled out her check. “You paid too much.”
“Yes, well,” she pushed back her hair, “let’s just call it even and be done.”
“I don’t like that word. Done.” He shook his head. “We aren’t.” Keeping his gaze on her, he ripped up the check.
“That’s a ten-thousand-dollar check,” Sophie said, lifting her right brow. “What was tearing it up supposed to prove?”
“That I don’t give a shit about the money.”
Her eyebrow dropped.
“That I plan to keep watching out for you, protecting you, until I’ve caught the man who broke into your place. The same man I’m damn sure tried to run us down in front of the courthouse.”
She advanced toward him, then seemed to catch herself. “But what if I’ve just been scamming you? What if I’m just some cold-blooded killer and none of what I’ve told you before is true?”
“Then I’m a piss poor judge of character because I don’t think you’re cold-blooded.” He tossed away the scraps of the check. “I don’t think anything about you is cold.” Lex headed toward her and pulled Sophie into his arms. “Not a damn thing.”
***
He’d done it. Griffin Hollister tried to keep his face suitably stoic as he sat through the endless round of questions. He knew the drill, of course. He’d have to bide his time and play the role. The slightly shell shocked man who’d been forced to take a life.
As if a jerk like Daniel Duvato mattered in the grand scheme of things. The bastard deserved exactly what he’d gotten. Actually, he deserved more. For his crimes, the fellow should have suffered so much longer.
But his suffering hadn’t been part of the deal. Duvato’s death—oh, hell, yes. It had been.
And that twenty grand was just the start. Now that the job is over, I’ll get the rest of my money. He just had to finish jumping through hoops first. He had to answer all the questions and play the scene just right.
Then, when the ADA let him go and all the police suits were out of his way, he’d collect his final
payment and leave the country immediately. No one in DC would ever see him again. Because that, too, had been part of the plan.
Good-bye, asshole criminals. Hello, sun-kissed girls in bikinis. He couldn’t wait to get down to the Caribbean.
Chapter Eight
Lex lifted Sophie up—she loved his strength—and pushed her back against the wall. Her legs curled around his hips, her skirt hiking up. She should be telling Lex to get his hands off her. She should be walking out that door.
But Sophie felt as if she were splintering apart on the inside, and he was the only anchor she had.
I don’t think anything about you is cold.
She’d just wanted to run away from him. From Chance Valentine. From Chance and Dev’s accusations. From the very real fear that, maybe, just maybe, Ethan had used her. That he’d set her up in one of his careful plans. That the one person she’d truly trusted in the last ten years had used her.
“Forget everything else,” Lex rasped against her mouth. “Screw the others. Just focus on me. On you. Come back to me, Sophie.”
The small handbag she’d been carrying hit the floor. Her hands lifted and curled around him. Her nails sank into his shirt as she held him tightly. She wanted to be with him. Wanted to forget the rest of the world and just vanish with Lex.
Lex was heat. He was passion. He was need.
“I want you, sweetheart,” he told her, the words a fierce growl, “so damn much.”
She looked into his eyes and saw the truth of those words. His desire was plain to see. No lie, no deception. He stared at her with a fierce lust in his gaze, a desire darker and hotter than anything she’d seen before.
Had any man ever wanted her the way he did?
Had she ever wanted any other man this way?
No.
“Here,” Sophie heard herself whisper. “Right now.”
“Sophie…” Not an argument from him, but a hungry, wild answer. Then his right hand was pushing her skirt up even more. She still had on thigh highs, so she felt the rough touch of his fingers on her inner thigh. That touch electrified her and Sophie arched toward him because she needed the pleasure they could share.
It was the wrong place—his friends were just down the hallway.
It was the wrong time—she should be getting the hell out of there.
But if she didn’t have him, right then, Sophie was afraid she’d lose her mind. She had too much pain ripping her apart on the inside. Too much fear and too many memories. She needed Lex and his passion to wipe everything else away.
“Fuck me now, Lex,” she told him. “Now.”
His fingers slid under the edge of her panties. She heard the rip of the material, and then his fingers were pushing into her sex.
“Sweetheart, you’re so tight. I have to make you ready.”
She kissed his neck. Bit him lightly and loved the growl he made. “I am ready. I want you.” He had her pinned against that wall. His fingers were in her, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted—
He stroked her clit. “You have to be ready. Always…ready.”
Her breath choked out. Her thighs quivered around him.
“Not just…fucking…” Lex bit out. He kissed her. Deep. Almost angry. “Not with you.”
Her heart seemed to stop. What had he meant by that? “Lex?”
“You are so perfect to me. Perfect for me.” He kept stroking her, and she was wet now, her sex opening and slickening with his every touch. Sophie could feel her orgasm building. They were both fully dressed—well, okay, except for her ripped panties. Being with him like that, right there in his office, it made her feel even wilder. Turned her on even more.
They weren’t in the dark. The lights were bright. She could see every expression on his face. So much desire filled his gaze.
“When you come, don’t cry out,” Lex said gruffly. “They’re too close…”
His fingers slid into her—two big, callused fingers. Her own hands clamped down even harder on his shoulders. In and out…stroking, stretching…while his thumb pressed over her clit.
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Lex said, “and when you come…”
She was about to come. She’d wanted his cock in her. Wanted him to fuck her hard, but he was bringing her to careful release, holding her tight, caressing her so intimately and—
His fingers thrust into her once more. Lex was working her sex faster now, a little harder, and still strumming her clit with his thumb as her breath heaved out. Tension tightened her body, driving up the need inside of her. Pushing her right to the edge—
He strummed her clit, and Sophie exploded.
“When you come, you’re fucking gorgeous,” Lex rasped. He kissed her again. Lex thrust his tongue deep even as his fingers kept stroking inside of her. She knew her sex was clamping tightly around him. She could feel the trembling contractions of her inner muscles. The pleasure came in rolling waves, knocking out her fear and her pain until he was all that she knew. Only Lex.
“Lex.” She’d whispered his name because his fingers were sliding out of her. Because he was carrying her now. Slowly sitting her on the edge of his desk. Then he lowered her skirt. And stepped back.
He hadn’t come. “Lex?” Now his name was a question. She squeezed her thighs together because she was still quivering inside and she wanted that delicious quiver to last as long as possible.
“That was for you.” But the desire was there, nearly burning out of control in his gaze. “Because I need you to know that I can be more than a selfish bastard. With you, I can be so much more.”
Just like that, her heart was racing again. The tension between her and Lex shot up even more. His cheeks were stained red, his features harder, rougher with his need. A need he wasn’t filling because…he only wanted her pleasure?
Sophie shook her head. “I want you.”
“You need to want me more.”
She didn’t think that was possible.
“More than breath, Sophie. More than life. More than any man you’ve desired before—”
“I do.” A stark confession.
“And more than any who will come again.”
She didn’t want to think of another lover. Only Lex.
“I need you to want me so much that the rest of the world can just fuck off because they don’t matter. The lies and the games and the pain…none of it matters because you want me so much.” His hands flew out and slapped down on the desk, caging her. “Because that’s how I want you. I want you so much that I feel like I might just rip apart.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Kissed his cheek. His mouth. Sophie lightly slid her tongue over his lips. “Then take me. I’m right here…”
“I won’t be a bastard, not with you.” She felt the shudder that shook him. “You matter.”
Her heart hurt.
“Think about what you truly want, sweetheart. Because if you break your one night rule with me…”
Her lips parted. She had been about to break her rule! That stupid rule—the rule that never let a lover get too close. He’s already close.
“I won’t let you go. If I have you again, you’re mine.”
The look in his eyes…the intensity of his voice…Sophie swallowed over the lump in her throat. He meant exactly what he was saying.
“A man could get addicted to a woman like you. Hell, I think I already am. So caught up that I’d be willing to do just about anything to have you again.” Then he shoved away from the desk and from her. “But before I cross that line, you need to be sure. Be sure I’m the man you want, because there will be no going back.”
Those words seemed like a dark warning.
Was she ready for that step? Was she ready for Lex?
“Then I’ll know all of your secrets,” Lex promised.
Instinctively, Sophie shook her head. No one knew them all.
“And you’ll know mine. And I’ll keep you safe, from anyone and everything that might try to harm y
ou.”
There seemed to be another layer in his words, a meaning that she wasn’t getting. “I don’t understand.”
“Then let me be very clear. I don’t care what you’ve done, Sophie. I don’t care if you’ve had to attack in order to survive. I will protect you, and no one will ever take you from me.”
I don’t care if you’ve had to attack in order to survive.
She knew, then. The understanding pierced Sophie to her soul. He thought she’d killed her parents. And he was saying what—that he didn’t care? That he’d still stand by her? No, not him. Not a protector like him, he wouldn’t—
“I will protect you,” Lex said again.
She jumped off the desk. “I have to go to my office.” Her knees did a jiggle, but she didn’t fall. Thankfully. “I have clients waiting. They need me.” She ran for the door. Desperate, yes, she was a very desperate woman in that instant.
“I need you, Sophie.”
His low words froze her as she was reaching for the doorknob.
“I think I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone, but you need me, too, don’t you?”
She looked back. “Yes.” A faint whisper. She did need him. She needed him to banish her pain and her fear. Needed him to accept her just as she was.
And he is. He just said he doesn’t care about my past. He just wants me. “Why?” Sophie asked.
“Don’t you know? A smart woman like you, haven’t you figured it out yet?”
She shook her head.
“You will.”
Sophie shivered at the hot promise in his voice. Hurriedly, she bent and picked up the handbag she’d dropped in the, ah, heat of the moment.
“When you come to me again, sweetheart, I’ll take you. You’ll take me. And there will be no going back.”
She opened the door. Hurried out. Made herself not look back. Get to the elevator. Get to the elevator. Get—
She was in the elevator. The doors were closing. She could breathe again.
A strong, tanned hand flew out, stopping those doors as the sensors immediately reacted. The doors slid back open. “Lex, no,” Sophie began, “I told you, I’m going to my office—”
“And I’m making sure that you get there safely.” Only it wasn’t Lex standing there. It was Dev. His bright blue eyes met her gaze. “When I saw you run out, I figured it would be better if I came along, instead of Lex.”